


A Crystal Moment

by phoenixyfriend



Series: Keith's Kitty Ears [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Angst and Humor, Cat Ears, Crying, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Galra Keith (Voltron), Humor, It's all in good fun though it's to make the other awful realities less apparent, M/M, Multi, Post-Episode: s02e08 The Blade of Marmora, References to Inuyasha, Some OOC, Space Dad Shiro (Voltron), Texan Keith (Voltron), Texas-bashing, Why are there double-barreled tags for all this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-22
Updated: 2017-02-22
Packaged: 2018-09-26 06:21:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9871268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoenixyfriend/pseuds/phoenixyfriend
Summary: In which Lance tries to take Keith's mind off of his angst by talking shit, Hunk gives the best hugs, and Keith really wants to know why Lance is doing the whole "soft gasp" thing while Keith is holding a Balmera crystal.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I literally wrote this _solely_ to have Lance complain about wanting to have a Kagome moment, and then getting it. That's it. That's the only reason I wrote this.
> 
> It started out as a Klance fic but ended up Klunk, and I am a-okay with that.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Lance said, holding up one hand to stop Keith in his tracks of explaining the fact that he was, according to the Blade of Marmora, actually part Galra.

Keith was mildly offended by this, if only because he felt that this story was _kind_ of important. Sure, he was only explaining the incidents that had led to him _suspecting_ he had Galra heritage now, but it was still less-than-polite to interrupt someone while they were telling a story.

“Yes?” He asked nonetheless, trying to keep said annoyance out of his voice.

“You said that when the quintessence splashed onto you, you turned a little purple?” Lance waited for Keith’s mildly confused nod before continuing. “Okay, so, if we pumped you full of quintessence, would that make you, like, look more Galra?”

Keith made a face. “Probably? I don’t… I don’t know? I don’t want to find out.”

Lance put a hand to his chest. “Keith, that hurts me almost as much as you being from Texas.”

“Are you _still_ going on about—”

“It’s _Texas_ ,” Lance said, as though that explained everything.

“Again?” Pidge demanded. “You’re having this argument _again?_ ”

“Texas!” Lance repeated, gesturing at Keith.

“How are you more offended by the Texas thing than me being part Galra?” Keith demanded.

“You actually grew up there and were influenced by the societal values presented, whereas your only connection to the Galra before this was that knife.” Lance crossed his arms. “And everyone knows that the only good thing to ever come out of Texas was Beyoncé.”

Keith took an aggressive step towards Lance before he could stop himself. “You take that back!”

“Make me!”

“Enough!” Shiro said, and when Keith turned to look at him, the man was shaking his head. “I don’t know what Lance’s issue with _Texas_ of all things is, but I’m disappointed in you both.”

Lance put a hand to his chest, offended. “2016, Shiro.”

“There were other states that—I wasn’t even _born_ back then!” Keith protested.

“You know, I think the conversation has deviated wildly from the original issue,” Pidge said. “I mean, it’s not like I’m all that concerned, since it’s weirdly hilarious to see Lance get worked up about Keith again, but, uh, have we forgotten the original point?”

Keith scrambled mentally to remember what the original topic had been. Lance had been sufficiently distracting for him to—

Right.

The original conversation was about Keith being part Galra.

“Way to kill the mood, Pidge,” Lance muttered, and it was so patently ridiculous that Keith could only gape.

“Are,” Pidge coughed into her hand. “Are you trying to say that you got worked up about Texas to distract Keith from feeling bad about the Galra thing?”

Lance did not answer.

Keith buried his face in his hands.

“As… admirable as your attempt to make your teammate feel better was,” Shiro said slowly, as though not entirely sure of how to approach the subject, “We really do need to—”

“To figure out if Keith gets fuzzy when we pump him full of quintessence?” Lance interrupted, grinning.

“They figured it out, dude,” Hunk muttered, elbowing him. “Stop.”

“I still wanna know if he gets fuzzy. I wanna have that Inuyasha moment.”

Shiro made a noise like a deflating balloon.

Lance spun and pointed at him. “Ha! I knew you watched anime!”

“That’s not the point right no—”

“ _Old_ anime, you watched _old anime,_ ” Lance declared. “You watch anime from half a century ago!”

Shiro closed his eyes and took a slow, deep breath. “Lance?”

“Yeah?”

“You’re grounded.”

Lance squawked, sounding so very much like a chicken that Keith stared a little. “You can’t do that! You’re not my dad!”

“I mean, we do call him Space Dad sometimes,” Hunk offered. “Like… I guess that’s the trade-off?”

“All four of you, out, now,” Shiro pinched the bridge of his nose, his other hand resting on his hip. “I’ll discuss further plans with the Blade of Marmora, Allura, and Coran. You all just… go change, I guess.”

“You do smell kinda funky, dude,” Lance said as they moved to the door. He linked his hands above his head and hip-checked Keith, if lightly. “You fought in that thing for _how_ many hours? Take a shower. I’ll even lend you my strawberry-scented shampoo.”

“Lance, how did you even get strawberry-scented _anything_ out here?” Pidge asked. “I mean, it’s not like we have access to strawberries, so—”

“It’s an _approximation,_ Pidge? C’mon. My dude,” Lance slung an arm around Pidge’s shoulder. “Have I led you wrong before?”

“Yes,” she deadpanned.

“Name one time.”

Pidge narrowed her eyes and opened her mouth to say something, then frowned as she thought about it a little more intently.

“I… I actually can’t think of anything,” she admitted after a moment. “Even endangering our lives rescuing Shiro had a good end result in getting me closer to rescuing my family.”

Lance blinked, clearly surprised, then slapped a smarmy, smug grin over his face like it was nothing less than he’d expected. “I’m clearly an amazing influence on you.”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Pidge muttered. “But seriously, strawberry-scented?”

“Close enough to count, and very dear to my heart.” Lance put a hand over his chest to demonstrated, then turned his gaze on Keith instead. “Which is why you should take advantage of my generosity while you can. Your hair could use a decent shampoo and conditioner.”

“What the hell is wrong with my hair?” Keith demanded, stifling the urge to reach up and touch it defensively.

“Greasy, badly maintained, dry, in a mullet, I can see the split ends from here…” Lance counted them off on his fingers while staring at the ceiling, then trailed off with a raised eyebrow as he looked back down at Keith. “You should really trim your hair before those split ends make their way further up, you know.”

“I’m not changing my hair just because—”

“It’s not about _changing_ your hair, _Keith_. It’s about keeping it healthy! You need to trim your hair regularly, especially if you don’t use conditioner, or it gets all dry and rough and nasty!” Lance made a face.

Pidge coughed into her fist. “Drama queen!”

“Yeah, miss ‘I’m going to run away from the castle to find my family despite Voltron being my best chance at gaining access to useful information’?” Lance shot back.

“How dare, Lance. How dare,” Pidge snickered the words, a sign that even Keith could interpret as meaning that she wasn’t actually offended.

“Oh, that’s it you little gremlin,” Lance snarled through a grin of his own, swooping down between Pidge’s legs and standing up with her hanging off of his shoulders, her head bouncing off the small of his back. “Whatcha gonna do now?”

“Put me down, Lance!” Pidge yelled unconvincingly through a storm of giggles. She squealed as Lance spun in place, grabbing for her glasses before they flew off her face. “You shit!”

“Nope! Gotta get all that blood flowing to your brain, so we can make you smarter!” Lance said, hopping around a little as Pidge continued to laugh and yell. “Feeling that IQ rise yet?”

“You _fucker_ ,” Pidge managed to gasp. “I’m going to hack your alarm so that it plays ‘Friday’ every morning!”

Lance froze, and Pidge let out an “Ooph!” as she thumped down against his back again.

“You wouldn’t.”

“Watch me.”

Lance pouted as he backed towards Hunk so he could help her down. “You win this time, Gunderson.”

“That’s not even my real name, memelord.”

“Okay, but ‘Gunderson’ is a lot more fun to say than ‘Holt.’ You gotta understand that, right?”

“I do,” Pidge said primly as she readjusted her glasses, back on the ground. “Which is why I’m not against the idea of you continuing to call me that. It sounds badass.”

“Is that why you chose it?”

“Hell yeah, it is.”

Hunk elbowed Keith in the ribs, startling him. Keith looked away from the scene that Pidge and Lance were making, and into warm brown eyes.

“You okay?”

Keith considered that for a moment. Allura’s cold eyes and Coran’s badly-hidden discomfort flashed through his mind.

A moment later, he remembered Lance’s overly dramatic _"Texas!”_

“I… I think I will be,” he said. “I just… I didn’t _do_ anything wrong. I just… _am_. And Allura hates me.”

Hunk bit his lip. “Okay, so I have a way to put this in perspective, but… you might not like it?”

“Try me,” Keith said. “It’s not like it could make things any worse.”

“Okay, so… how much do you know about social justice movements from the earlier half of the century and the common phrases of the time, especially the satirical ones? I’m thinking of one that’s lasted until now, if not quite as strongly, but…”

Keith frowned, then held up a hand and wiggled it. “About as much as I got from my history class and conspiracy research?”

“Okay, so you’ve heard the phrase ‘not all men’ and all the associated meanings?” Hunk asked.

Keith frowned, then nodded. “Like, even if not all men are responsible for… _oh_.”

“Yeah, imagine Allura’s position as you guys saying ‘not all Galra’ or whatever.”

Keith frowned at the ground, because… okay, it _did_ make more sense that way, but it still hurt.

“The issue isn’t so much that Allura needs to change her stance on Galra, even if it would be helpful with the Blade of Marmora, but that she needs some time to… reconcile, I guess? Reconcile the idea of you, a loyal paladin, with the species that destroyed everything she’s ever known and loved.” Hunk trailed off with the last words, wringing his hands. “Sorry, that… probably sounds pretty bad, but—”

“No, I get it, it’s just… she keeps looking at me like I’ve done all that stuff personally. And I’ve risked my life against the Galra before, so…” Keith huffed and crossed his arms, cupping his elbows and hunching in on himself. The pink-purple glow of the suit he’d gotten from the Blade of Marmora caught the corner of his gaze, and he squeezed his eyes shut.

He took a deep breath and tried to ignore the prickling feeling beneath his eyelids and the way the muscles of his face were pulling back like he was about to… to…

Fuck.

“Aw, dude, I wasn’t trying to make you cry,” Hunk said from his side. Large hands landed on Keith’s shoulders and pulled him into a hug. “C’mere.”

Distantly, he noticed Pidge and Lance stop arguing. After a few seconds, they joined the hug too, with Lance to Keith’s left and Pidge to his right.

They didn’t say anything. Not even Lance commented as Keith started to break down, his breathing jagged, his arms pressed close to his body, his hands tucked up under his chin, and tears streaming down his face.

Keith was glad that the three of them were holding him up, because he could feel his own knees starting to wobble. There was something about crying that just made everything a little… loose.

“Okay, down we go,” Hunk muttered, leaning back against the wall and sliding down. He shifted Keith until he was sitting crossways in Hunk’s lap, with Pidge and Lance still clinging on from either side. Lance’s forehead was pressing into the back of Keith’s neck, while Pidge was essentially just hugging Keith’s knees at this point.

“Would it help if I pissed you off about something dumb again?” Lance whispered.

Keith shook his head, and a large hand patted against his shoulder, then moved to tuck Keith’s head under Hunk’s own chin.

“Hunk hugs are the best hugs,” Pidge whispered. “So if you were gonna cry anywhere, it’s a good thing it happened here.”

Keith almost laughed through his hiccupping sobs.

“It’s one of those situations where everything just feels like it’s too much, huh?” Lance asked, and if his hand came up to start carding through Keith’s hair, well, it wasn’t like anyone was going to judge right now. “With all the other shit that’s going on, it’s only normal to feel overwhelmed.”

“Lance cried last week because of how homesick he was,” Pidge informed Keith, like it was some big secret. “And Hunk had to help him out. That’s why dinner was late.”

Lance scoffed, but didn’t deny it.

They stayed there long enough for Shiro to finish with his meeting, enough for Keith to be out of energy but not quite out of tears, just laying there and letting them stream out.

“Oh.”

It wasn’t much of a sound, but it was enough to make Keith wince. He didn’t… he didn’t want to look weak in front of Shiro. The man was the closest thing Keith had ever had to an older brother, and the only person Keith had looked up to for years.

And Keith knew that tears weren’t a sign of weakness, and Shiro wouldn’t judge him for it, but… but…

Well.

Societal values and all that.

Shiro took a seat just outside the little cuddle pile and slipped his hand into one of Keith’s, leaning lightly against Hunk’s knees as he waited it out, just like he had back during Keith’s early days at the Garrison.

Everything was going to be okay, Keith told himself. Everything was going to be okay.

o.o.o.o.o

_A vague and indeterminate amount of time later:_

“So as the princess feeds the Balmera energy, you need only take the crystals that it allows you to have,” Shay explained. “It is easy to tell which crystals you are permitted to take, as they are loose, and leave their positions easily.”

“So just tug a little, and if it stays put, move on to the next one?” Lance said, trying to clarify, fiddling with the brown sacks they’d been given for collection purposes.

“Essentially, yes.” Shay nodded. “It should not take overly long to collect as many crystals as the Princess requested.”

“I’m sure we’ll be done in no time,” Lance assured her. “Right, Hunk?”

“Yeah, I think we’ll be fine,” Hunk said, shaking his head. “You said you had to go help with the quintessence stuff, right?”

“Yes, I should make haste to the Princess for the ritual. Good luck!”

“Alright,” Shiro said as Shay made her way out. “No goofing off, alright?”

“You jinxed it, Space Dad,” Pidge informed him, face and voice grave. “There’s going to be goofing off, and we won’t even see it coming.”

“I’m not… I’m not your father, Pidge.”

“You’re not _Dad_ , but you are Space Dad.” She shrugged. “It’s a role you are preeminently suited for.”

“I agree!” Lance chimed in.

“Same,” Hunk said with a smile and an easy shrug.

Shiro turned hopeful eyes on Keith.

“…don’t look at me for help, Space Dad.”

Shiro’s hopeful look dropped away with a sigh. He brought his free hand up to palm his face, and muttered, “I hate all of you.”

“That’s a really mean thing to say to your Space Children,” Lance said.

“We are small things, like cinnamon rolls,” Pidge added.

“Too good for this world, too pure,” Hunk finished off with a grin.

Shiro let out a noise like wounded cattle. “Why are you like this?”

“You kept acting like a dad,” Keith told him. “So you became one, in spirit.”

“That’s not—”

Shiro cut himself off as the Balmera groaned around them, the crystals glowing just a tad bit brighter.

“There’s our signal,” he said, then gestured to the crystals. “Get to it.”

It went about as well as expected, and Pidge was only somewhat wrong about the goofing off.

The goofing off happened immediately _after_ the harvest of sorts. They were underneath the castle, and they had all been given permission to change out of their paladin uniforms and into their usual clothing, sitting in a loose circle with a few spare crystals to play with as the “adults” talked. Keith sat across from Lance, with Hunk to his left and Pidge to his right, an arrangement that Shiro had decided would make it less likely for a fight to break out over something minor.

“These crystals are _warm_ , dude.” Lance rolled one of the smaller ones between his palms, eyeing it with fascination. “I mean, I figured they would be? Since energy turns into heat or whatever, but… it’s different feeling it.”

“You’re close enough on the ‘energy turns into heat’ thing that I’m not going to bother correcting you, since I have better things to do.” Pidge held a small crystal up to her eyes, squinting to get a better look. “I can’t see any imperfections, but the way the light comes out is… I don’t know, it’s weird somehow. I hope I can ask Coran for some details later on how the energy is stored, and converted into heat and light, and how it’s extracted from the crystal to convert into fuel and such.”

“Nerd,” Lance grinned and punched her lightly in the shoulder. “Hey Keith, you wanna see what one of these feels like?”

“I… sure?” He frowned. He certainly didn’t have anything _against_ it. He didn’t see the point, considering they’d spent an hour or so gathering the appropriate kind of crystal for the ship’s lesser activities, but he wasn’t really bothered by the idea. He stretched out a hand. “Give one here, I guess.”

Lance grinned and tossed him a crystal. Keith fumbled the catch a little, and rolled his eyes when Lance laughed at him.

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up.”

He looked down at his hands and froze.

“Keith?” Hunk asked. “Is something wr—oh my god.”

“Guys?” Keith said, voice a little higher pitched than strictly necessary. “What’s happening?”

His hands were purple.

His hands were… they were _Galra purple_.

He looked up and frantically searched his friends’ faces. “What the hell?”

“I, uh, I guess I was right about quintessence drawing out your Galra side?” Lance said hesitantly. “Um… do you want to drop that, or can we see it affect you, like, fully?”

Keith… Keith wasn’t sure.

“We won’t judge you, dude.” Pidge put a hand on his shoulder, shifting closer. “You can choose either way.”

“Your face is changing,” Lance said, actually quiet for once. “Do you want us to look away?”

“I… close your eyes?” Keith tried to compromise. “And… and once it’s done and I’ve seen what I look like, I can choose whether you look or not.”

They nodded, and did as he’d requested. Pidge didn’t immediately close her eyes, but he wasn’t bothered by that, since she spent that time activating the selfie-mode camera on a datapad she’d brought down to do research on the crystals. She handed it over to him without looking up.

“Tell us when you’re ready.”

Keith didn’t let go of the crystal, staring down at the datapad as the purple crept up his skin, and his face started changing. It wasn’t _much_ , but his nose got a little wider and more angled, in an almost feline manner, and his ears changed shape and moved up, up, up, which obviously had _some_ effect on the rest of his bone structure, even if he wasn’t sure what that effect was.

The change in his eyes from human and purple to the very inhuman yellow of the Galra was the most unnerving part of it, in his opinion, and that included the ears and hair and the incredibly fine layer of fur that he could feel when he brushed a hand against his face. The ears were larger than he expected, and vaguely catlike. They were also very, very furry. Lance would probably be happy.

He took a shaky breath as the changes seemed to end.

The final effect wasn’t… bad? He definitely looked Galra, but he didn’t seem to have the particularly intimidating features, just a little… animalistic.

He didn’t think anyone was going to run screaming, at least.

“Okay, you can, uh, you can look.” He kept his eyes trained on the datapad, bringing one hand up to rub against the back of his neck.

A soft gasp prompted him to look up.

Hunk and Pidge only looked curious, and if they were uncomfortable, then they were hiding it well.

Lance, on the other hand…

Lance had a slowly growing smile, and his eyes looked like they were sparkling, and his hands were coming upwards to bunch together over his mouth like he was trying to hide how gosh-darn cute he found something. He was the one that had gasped, and his eyes were trained on the ears that had migrated a few inches up Keith’s head.

“Uh…” Keith shrank in on himself a little, not quite comfortable enough to stop watching Lance like he was going to attack.

“Keith?” Lance said, voice sounding strangely strangled. “Can I… can I touch your ears?”

Keith’s grip on the crystal in his hand tightened. “Um.”

Lance’s eyes snapped down to Keith’s. “You don’t have to say yes, but they look really fuzzy and soft and I want to see if they feel as nice as they look.”

“That came out wrong,” Hunk said before Keith could even finish processing the sentence. “I can understand the appeal, though.”

Keith hugged his knees and considered it. “Okay, but be careful. I don’t know how sensitive these things are.”

Lance let out a noise that Keith could only describe as an excited squeal, and darted across the circle to kneel in front of Keith. He reached up slowly, as though trying to avoid startling Keith, and there were practically stars in his eyes.

“Oh my god, they move,” he whispered, like it was the cutest damn thing he’d ever seen.

“You’re creeping me out,” Keith said after a moment of contemplation.

Lance bit his lip. “I’m sorry, dude, you’re just… you’re really fucking cute right now, y’know?”

Keith pressed his lips together to keep from smiling, and hoped that Galra didn’t blush.

Lance’s hands finally reached his ears, rubbing softly around the outer shell and playing with the fur.

“That feels weird,” Keith said after a moment, studiously ignoring the fact that his eyes were on the same level as Lance’s neck, and that he could see down the other boy’s shirt.

“Bad weird?” Lance asked, pausing.

“Weird weird. I don’t… all the nerves have been moved around, I guess?” Keith felt his ears twitch a little.

“Huh,” Lance said, and then lightly pinched them. It wasn’t even a pinch, not really, since it didn’t hurt and felt like he was using the flats of his fingers instead of the pointy tips, but then he started rubbing them like he was putting a pinch of salt into something. _That_ made Keith reach up with his free hand to grab Lance’s wrist. He looked up and met Lance’s eyes.

“Bad weird.”

Lance nodded slowly, and then looked back up at Keith’s ears and frowned as his wrist was released. He tried the same motion, but with a softer touch.

“Still weird,” Keith said, shifting uncomfortably.

“Okay, let’s try something else.”

Pidge was outright giggling, and out of the corner of his eye, Keith could see her holding out the datapad and taking pictures of them.

(It was a giggle, no matter what Pidge claimed. Something that high-pitched and sweet couldn’t be anything else.)

Lance moved his hands down to the base of Keith’s ears and started rubbing, as though petting a cat.

Keith really shouldn’t have been surprised by how good it felt.

“Oh,” he almost moaned the word, closing his eyes and tilting his head to the side a little. It wasn’t a sexual moan, but something much like the kind of moan that a good massage could cause.

He jerked in place with surprise when the purring started, stopping it almost immediately.

Lance gaped at him, and Keith once again hoped he couldn’t blush.

“You can _purr?_ ” He demanded in a whisper.

“…apparently?” Keith said, almost as helplessly as he felt.

Lance stared for a moment longer, then glanced up at Keith’s ears. As his gaze dropped back down to meet Keith’s eyes, he raised one brow. “Want me to keep doing it?”

“…yes,” Keith muttered, ducking his head in embarrassment.

“Can I join in?” Hunk asked, though he at least sounded hesitant.

Keith pretended to ignore Lance’s quiet squeal as one of his ears flicked towards Hunk’s direction.

“Sure?”

“I’m taking pictures for posterity,” Pidge informed them. “Also sending them to Shiro and Allura with the caption ‘Lance got his Kagome moment.’”

Lance snorted, moving around to sit at Keith’s side instead of continuing to kneel in front of him. He tugged Keith over sideways until he was curled up and lying across Lance’s lap.

“This is so fucking dumb,” Keith muttered, but he didn’t get up, and he didn’t let go of the crystal he was still clutching.

“I think it’ll be worth it just to see you keep blushing at how cute your Galra side is making you.”

“…quiznak.”

Lance snickered as Hunk sat down on his other side, and then Keith deliberately stopped thinking about how embarrassing this was. His friends had proven over the course of several months that they wouldn’t mock him for being less than masculine or for being part Galra (though Texas was still fair game, _apparently_ ), so he could totally relax around them.

And, well, being rubbed behind the ears like a cat, while _very_ embarrassing, was still pretty damn relaxing. So was, he found as Hunk moved his hand to avoid colliding with Lance, being scratched on the back of his neck.

The purring started up again almost immediately, surprising no one, and he tried to ignore Lance’s cooing at how strong the noise was.

It was harder to ignore Lance’s impromptu pause in favor of hugging Keith, but he stopped after a moment and went back to his earlier activity of rubbing Keith’s ears.

“Hi Shiro!” Pidge said cheerfully, and Keith tensed for a moment before the ear rubs and the neck scratch and Lance’s hand running down his arm and that _stupid fucking cooing_ somehow calmed him down again almost immediately.

“…You know, when I got your message, this wasn’t quite what I expected,” Shiro said after a moment.

“I got my Kagome moment,” Lance said proudly. Keith cracked open one eye to look at Shiro. He didn’t open it enough to see much further than Shiro, but there was a blur of color a bit further back that looked like it might be Allura.

“I can see that,” Shiro said, crouching down in front of them, elbows resting on his knees. “I honestly don’t think I’ve ever seen Keith this relaxed.”

“Well, now we know what to do if he gets too tense!” Lance said, and even though Keith couldn’t see his face, there was a grin in those words.

“If he agrees to it, sure.” Shiro reached out with one hand, and paused. “May I?”

Keith nodded lazily as Lance pulled his hand away, the movement feeling like it took far more effort than it should have. He was very tired, and it was no surprise when his eye slid closed again.

“Isn’t he adorable like this?” Lance whisper-squealed. “He’s cute, right?”

“I can’t actually disagree,” Shiro admitted as he started rubbing behind Keith’s ears the way Lance had. “I’d compare him to a kitten, but I feel like that would cross the line into outright patronization.”

“Quiznak you,” Keith muttered, coaxing a snorted laugh out of Shiro. Keith grinned a little against Lance’s leg, relaxing further.

“Allura! Come over here!” Shiro called over his shoulder.

Keith tensed again, a tiny spark of adrenaline making its way into his system. Fuck. No, he’d only barely managed to get to a point where Allura accepted him again. She couldn’t see him like thi—

“Shh,” Lance ran a hand through Keith’s hair. Apparently the sudden lack of purring had made him realize what the problem was. “You’re fine. You’re safe. No one’s going to hurt you.”

…that shouldn’t have been so comforting.

“Keith, if you don’t want Allura doing this, you can tell us,” Hunk said. “Actually, this seems more like an opt-in situation than an opt-out one, so tell us if you _are_ fine with it. We’ll assume you aren’t, as a default.”

Keith cracked one eye open again, and looked up at Allura.

She looked… nervous. Not like one would be around a wild animal or a potential enemy, just nervous. Like she was worried he didn’t trust her enough to let her do this.

(‘This’ being the utterly ridiculous activity of being pet like a cat.)

He closed his eye again, snuggled just a little closer to Lance (not that he would ever admit it), and then nodded minutely. “…trust you.”

“I think that’s a ‘yes.’” Shiro said, and there was definitely relief in his voice.

“It’s as with any other creature with sensitive ears?” Allura asked, tentative.

“You know how you rub the mice behind the ears sometimes? Kinda like that,” Lance told her. “Keith’s not an animal, of course, but the physiology’s similar enough to make the comparison.”

“I see,” Allura said. The thin fingers that made their way into his hair and behind his ears were hesitant and light, and didn’t really do much in the way that Shiro and Lance had.

So he maybe pressed his head forward into her hand a little, letting out a truly mortifying crooning noise as he did so.

Lance and Allura made near-identical helpless “Oh,” noises.

Lance’s hand covered Allura’s and showed her how to, well, how to pet a cat. Because that was basically what Keith was, at this point. Not physically, no, but functionally? Absolutely. He wasn’t even going to deny it.

“I’m never going to stop enjoying these pictures,” Pidge whispered.

“Hey, Shiro?” Hunk said, a grin in his voice. “Pidge hasn’t joined in yet.”

There were some noises that Keith couldn’t quite keep track of, shifting clothing and an annoyed “ugh,” and then he could feel Hunk moving away. He actually whined at the sudden loss of contact, something that cut off abruptly as he realized he was doing it.

Then Pidge’s hand replaced Hunk’s on the back of his neck, and he sunk back into that vaguely meditative state of pure relaxation.

“How the fuck are you so cute like this, mullet?” Lance demanded, but it was in that high-pitched whisper that made it clear he was smiling. “How the quiznak?”

“Shut up,” Keith muttered.

Lance tickled at his cheek. “But you’re so cute!”

Keith considered his next action, he really did. There were lots of ways to react to that, including just ignoring him and continuing to enjoy the petting.

But.

 _But_.

“…y’ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”

Lance froze, and Keith bit his lip to hide his grin.

“Oh shit,” Pidge whispered, badly stifling her laughter. “He did not just—”

“Keith, _why_.” Shiro’s voice was muffled, like he’d just covered his face again.

Keith waited for Lance’s reaction, which ended up being a sudden flop forwards across Keith to hug him. “You’re damn lucky you’re cute, Texas.”

Keith just purred louder.

o.o.o.o.o

“Keep it with you,” Shiro said, after all that was over, and Keith was back to normal. They’d all eventually piled back onto the ship and left the Balmera. “Two, actually. One in your suit pocket and another in your room.”

Keith could guess why, but… “Are you sure?”

Shiro shrugged. “We have enough spares that it isn’t a huge problem, and the benefits are good. If you keep one in your suit, it’ll make it easier to do impersonations when necessary, and the one in your room, well…”

“You think I don’t relax enough,” Keith summarized.

“Literally all you need to do is hold a crystal and be within eyesight of Lance, and he’ll be begging to pet you,” Shiro agreed, not even sorry. “And it fades within a few minutes once you no longer have skin-to-skin contact, so there isn’t a huge risk, either.”

Keith rubbed the back of his neck and looked away.

“You’re blushing,” Shiro noted, and that grin was back in his voice.

“Shut up.”

“Do I get to know who the lucky guy is?” Shiro taunted.

Keith pressed his palms against his eyes. “Shut up, shut up, shut up.”

“Keith’s got a crush~!”

“Oh my god, you _fucking_ six-year-old!” Keith groaned, dropping his hands and half-heartedly aiming a kick at Shiro’s shins.

The man danced out of the way, practically cackling. “You shouldn’t attack children, Keith.”

“I hate you, so much.”

Shiro’s laughter subsided as he came back over, ruffling Keith’s hair. “Alright, I’ll drop it. But…”

Keith tensed. “Yeah?”

“I’m happy you trust the team this way, too. Not just to have your back in battle, but with the… softer things, I guess.”

Keith shrugged, a little uncomfortable. He stuck his hands in his pockets and looked away again. “Yeah, well, they’ve earned it.”

“And I think you’ve earned the kind of break that crystal’s going to let you get.”

“…thanks.”

They kept walking down the hall, on their way back to the main control room, and Keith spoke up. “I don’t know.”

“What?”

“I can’t decide, and I might be falling for both of them.”

“…I’m sure Hunk and Lance can share like big b—Keith! Don’t elbow me, you brat!”

“Says the six-year-old.”

“I am… offended that you would use my leap-year birthday against me like that.”

“And how many times did you use your supposed age as an excuse to get out of random shit?”

“Point.”

Keith still tried to trip Shiro on their way down the hall, and Shiro still avoided it like the perfect human being he somehow was.

(And if Keith blushed a little while staring at the ground, remembering a hand on his head and another on his neck, two boys his age who were more _excited_ than _scared_ about him turning Galra… well, it wasn’t like Shiro was going to tell.)

**Author's Note:**

> [The Kagome Moment](https://68.media.tumblr.com/0d67007a7c70cdac9893654c1c0c0bff/tumblr_o6t7x93Gw41vt8lt1o1_500.gif)  
>  The whole "not all men" comparison was inspired by [this tumblr post.](http://tonyskittymug.tumblr.com/post/156671921610/allura-i-cant-trust-the-galra-because-they)
> 
> (Was Lance and Pidge's moment inspired by that one scene in Big Hero 6? Absolutely.)
> 
> I hope you all enjoyed that, because I stayed up until five AM writing it. I have classes in the morning.
> 
> (In case it wasn't clear: I don't actually hate Texas, and I feel that the Allura situation is much more complicated than many people are willing to give credit for.)


End file.
